Cost per page - Inkjet printers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Don Schmidt
  • Start date Start date
D

Don Schmidt

Anyone know the approximate cost for ink and paper per page is?

Black & White

Color

I'm not splitting any atoms here; some years ago it was anywhere from 40¢ to
80¢

Many thanks.
 
in message
Anyone know the approximate cost for ink and paper per page is?

Black & White

Color

I'm not splitting any atoms here; some years ago it was anywhere
from 40¢ to 80¢

Many thanks.
Click to expand...


Quality of paper.
Wholesale or volume versus retail purchase of paper.
Inkjet cartridge supplier.
Discount or full retail price on ink cartridge.
Printing plain text, text w/images, or photographic-quality images.
Reverse printing (white on black on white paper) versus normal (black
on white paper)
Draft versus normal versus high-quality print modes.
Letting cartridges dry out so their ports get plugged with dry ink
that results in trashing a cartridge with ink still in it (i.e., not
using the cartridge enough to keep the jets clean).
Whether you are purchasing cartridges for late model, antiquated
models, rare models, or popular models of printers.
Which brand of printer, availability of cartridges, production volume,
number 3rd party cartridge suppliers, market competition.

I'm sure there are lots of other factors to the cost per page. Since
only you know which brand and model of inkjet printer that you have or
are considering to purchase, what paper you will use, what you will
print, and if you will buy the brand-name retail cartridges, 3rd party
cartridge suppliers, or refill the cartridges is only known to you
since none of that was divulged in your post.

You obviously have Internet access. Do your own research on whatever
you use or intend to use.
 
I don't think that it is that expensive but like VanguardLH said there
are many factors to consider to get an accurate cost per page. Everyday
use paper costs about $5.00/ream, a ream is 500 pages so paper for
everyday printing is as little as one cent per page. The ink cost and
approximate yield information you can find on the net. To that you have
to include the printer cost, for good quality printers the MTBF (Mean
Time Between Failure) is often given and expressed in number of pages
printed, so a printer with a MTBF of 50,000 should yield about that many
pages, that is its about useful life, divide the cost of the printer by
the MTBF and it will give you an approximate hardware cost per page.

My findings with this is that the old saying "You can pay me now, or you
can pay me later" certainly applies to printers! Ink for cheap printers
is way more expensive than for the more expensive ones and manufacturers
usually don't publish MTBF information for the cheap printers, I can
tell you that they don't last too long and the hardware cost is usually
much more than for expensive printers. Another cost often overlooked is
the speed at which the printer prints and the overall quality of the
prints. If you are paying an employee to print 100 pages on a printer
that prints 4 or 5 pages per minutes and that blotch half of them the
cost per page is going to be in the dollar range, not pennies!

In the end it is up to you to decide what you need. Try to estimate how
many pages you print per month and try to get a printer rated for a bit
more than your monthly average. I think that nobody regrets spending a
bit more for a good printer, they are worth it if you do any amount of
printing. I think that you should leave those $79 clacketty printers on
the shelf, they're not very reliable and the replacement ink usually
cost more than the printer! Not to mention that after you run 2 sets of
cartridges and about 1,000 pages through the printer it will probably
break down! In other words, you get what you pay for.

John
 
I don't think that it is that expensive but like VanguardLH said there
are many factors to consider to get an accurate cost per page. Everyday
use paper costs about $5.00/ream, a ream is 500 pages so paper for
everyday printing is as little as one cent per page.
Click to expand...


And let me point out that even there, there is great variability in
price. I buy cartons of 10 reams from Costco for under $25 US, so the
price is only half a cent per page.
 
I did do several searches as you suggest but like you no where did anyone
come up with cost per page.

I've tagged this the Amelia Earhart project. The solution is out there;
just can't be found.
 
The mystery continues but let me share with you an excellent paper for
greeting/anniversary double fold cards; and also great for the cover page of
a few pages booklets.

Brand: Wausau Exact, Opaque White 70 lb White / 92 Brightness #55581
500 sheets Ream less than $10.00
 
<snipped>
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ct:Inkjet+insubject:printers#ce47c483a117dc3a



Don said:
I did do several searches as you suggest but like you no where did
anyone come up with cost per page.

I've tagged this the Amelia Earhart project. The solution is out
there; just can't be found.
Click to expand...

You are looking for some 'hard and fast number' when in reality - it would
be different given the many factors listed and those factors are unique to
you. If you want to know the cost-per-page, you have to calculate that
yourself.

1) How much did the printer cost _you_ originally?
2) How much does your paper that _you_ utilize cost?
3) How much does replacement ink/ink cartidges cost _you_?
4) How many pages do _you_ get out of each ink cartridge (set of
cartridges)?

Those 4 things should give you a basic way of calculating what you want.

For example - if you have a printer (black only for this example - say it
cost $100 originally) where the ink cost you $30/purchase and the paper cost
you $3 per ream (500 sheets to a ream) and the cartridge gives you 500
sheets of quality printouts and that *is* the way things are...

Simple calculation (negating the cost of the printer): 500/$33.00 = $0.15
per page.
 
in message
I did do several searches as you suggest but like you no where did
anyone come up with cost per page.
Click to expand...


Well, *do* you have an inkjet printer? If yes then you can do your
own research. Find out what a ream of paper costs of the quality and
type that you intend to buy. Find out what the printer costs (don't
know if you are including that cost and over what time interval before
discarding the printer). Find out what the ink cartridges cost,
whether you are getting them retail, discounted online, refilled, or
using refill kits. Unless you do your own testing printing, you could
try using the average consumption specs offered by whomever's printer
you use. If you don't have an inkjet printer, you could pretend you
have one and still use all the above number.
 
in message
The mystery continues but let me share with you an excellent paper
for greeting/anniversary double fold cards; and also great for the
cover page of a few pages booklets.

Brand: Wausau Exact, Opaque White 70 lb White / 92 Brightness
#55581
500 sheets Ream less than $10.00
Click to expand...


But then you need to determine in all your calculations if such paper
is usable by whatever printer you intend to use in your calculations.
Most printers are geared for #25 paper. #70 paper could be too thick
or too non-flexible to wrangle its way through the feed mechanism of
the printer. Obviously a printer that feeds and ejects on the same
side would put a roll in the thicker paper, so for doing greeting card
work you would want a straight-feed printer (in the front, out the
back, and *flat* with no bending which means the paper can't even be
in a slanted feed tray) that keeps the paper flat during printing
instead of rolling it over a roller to get the printer under the
cartridge's head(s). Not all cheapie inkjet printers can handle
heavy-weight paper, so the more expensive printer would have to figure
into your cost per page.
 
Yes, I have figured out if I total the number of the Black, Cyan, Magenta
and Yellow cartridges so they all exhaust at the same time assuming I'll use
more of one color than another but do proceed with this plan and print an
average color combinations and then continued to print pages until the inks
exhaust I would have the numbers for the solution. BUT, being 76 years of
age, I may run out of time before I go to room temperature. So, being an
engineer by profession I've done the next best thing, referred the problem
to my staff, the folks here on the N.G. And being the team leader reviewing
the data, getting the supporting assurance from the project team, I've come
up with 42.5¢ per page. And because of your undying loyalty, hard work,
dedication, you all will get high marks on your next evaluation. Plus,
generous bonuses for all.

"God help me, I do love it so." (George C Scott)

Your Big Kahuna Boss Man,
 
The pound rating of paper is not associated with the paper thickness; I
think it has to do with strength. At least it doesn't apply with the paper
I've suggested; it is about double the thickness of normal 20 lb paper. I
use a HP Business Inkjet 1200 on our home network. Paper travels through
the printer negotiating a 180° turn on a +/- 1.5" roller.

A thicker more booklet like cover paper I use without difficulty is Wausau
Exact 65 lb #68801. I use this one for our lodge's member directory which
is 24 pages. It does require premium staples to bind.

don
 
How about other costs like:

Paper jams.
Dummy runs for proof reading.


--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Don

That sounds like a top paper feeder which are far more prone to jams. A
flat feed level tray is better.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The HP Business InkJet 1200 is a two tray printer where the paper is feed in
on the bottom and comes out on top of the two trays. It also has a duplex
routing in the back of the printer. Jams are scarce and if it does, a push
of a button clears the jam. The one disappointment I have with this printer
is, it leaves a ½" margin on the bottom of the paper. Other than that it
works well if I print from my computer, the wireless laptop path or from our
daughter's networked computer in her room.
 
Don

My preference is to use a laser printer. I do not need colour. Initial
expense is greater but cheaper running costs/ HP Laserjet 1200.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The pound rating is in fact the weight of the paper. A ream of 20 pound
17"x22" sheets of bond paper is supposed to weigh 20 pounds. Therefore
a ream of 8.5"x11" would weigh 5 pounds.
- Grandpa was a printer.
 
Back
Top